BOREAS

WHich, among these is Albion, Neptune's Son? WHat Power art thou, that thus informest me? TO thee then, thus, & by thee, to that King, That does thee present honours, do I bring Present remembrance of twelve Aethiope Dams: Who, guided hither by the Moons bright flames, To see his brighter light, were to the Sea Enjoined again, and (thence assigned a day For their return) were in the waves to leave Their blackness, and true beauty to receive. IT was nor Will, nor Sloth, that caused their stay; For they were all prepared by their day, And, with religion, forward on their way: When PROTEUS, Read his de scription, with Virg. Geor. 4. Est in Carpa thio Neptuni gurgite vates, Caeruleus Pro teus. the grey Prophet of the Sea, Met them, and made report, how other four Of their black kind, (whereof their Sire had store) Faithful to that great wonder, so late done Upon their Sisters, by bright Albion, Had followed them to seek BRITANIA forth, And there, to hope Like favour, as Like worth. Which Night envied, as done Because they were before of her come plexion. in her despite, And (mad to see and Aethiope washed white) Thought to prevent in these; least men should deem Her colour, if thus changed, of small esteem. And so, by malice, and her magic, tossed The Nymphs at Sea, as they were almost lost, Till, on and Island, they by chance arrived, That To give au thority to this partly of our fic cion. Pliny hath a Chap. 95. of his 2. book. Nat. Hist. de Insulis fluctuantib &, Carded. lib. 1 de rerum vari ̄ . et. Cap. vij. re ports one, to be in his time known, in the Lake of Loumond, in Scotland. to let pass that of Delos. &c. floated in the main; where, yet, she' had gived sighed. Them so, in charms of darkness, as no might) Should lose them thence, but their changed Sisters Whereat the Twelve (in piety moved, & kind) Straight, put themselves in act, the place to find; Which was the Nights sole trust they so will do, That she, with labour, might confound them too. For, ever since, with error hath she held Them wandering in the Ocean, and so quelled Their Hope's beneath their toil, as (desperate now Of any least success unto their vow; Nor knowing to return to express the grace, Wherewith they labour to this Prince, and place) One of them, meeting me at Sea, did pray, That for the love of my The daugh ter of Erecthe us, King of A them, whom Boreas ravished a way, into Thrace, as she was playing with other vir begins by the flood Ilissus: or (as some will) by the Fountain Cephisus. ORYTHYIA, (Whose very name did heat my frosty breast, And make me shake my Snow-filled wings, & crest) To bear this sad report I would be won, And frame their joust excuse: which here I have done.